TikTok may already be the most popular app in the world but it is not about to rest on its laurels. It is exploring new growth opportunities such as TikTok mobile gaming with the help of the industry leader Zynga. This was announced along with Zynga's Q3 earnings report which revealed an excellent revenue increase of 40% year-on-year at $705 million. The partnership of two of the hottest names in tech today is turning heads and creating excitement.

Disco Loco 3D

The plan is to launch a game called "Disco Loco 3D" on the Tiktok platform. This will be an exclusive so interested parties will have to come over for the experience. The single-player game is designed as an endless runner with players having to walk down a catwalk while they avoid obstacles, perform dance moves, challenge friends, and collect medallions. The concept is actually similar one of Zynga's creations called "High Heels" so those who are familiar with the title should find this easy to play.

Disco Loco 3D is a way for TikTok to test the waters with a traditional game. It is not just about the technicalities more so about their users' appetite for gaming within the app itself. The company wants to understand how the community wants to engage with games. There are already millions of gamers on TikTok who create and consume video content. They range from casual gamers who play for fun to the hardcore players who compete at the highest levels. How they will respond to this tighter integration will be interesting to see.

Garden of Good

It should be noted that this is not exactly TikTok's first game on their platform. They already have one under their belt called the "Garden of Good". However, that was more for charity than for entertainment or profits. It was a partnership with the organization Feeding America with the goal of raising funds for their programs. It was launched earlier this year through TikTok's own efforts. Players were given their own virtual garden to care for. They could also provide support to friends who were also playing their game. They can earn points as their garden grows. These can be then be converted into real donations to the charity.

Teens are known to be the people who primarily use social media; there are various social media platforms that teens use for fun and even catching up with friends and family by creating memories. If you are updated, you must know the relationship between Snapchat and teens; lately, Snapchat is becoming more popular than TikTok and Instagram. Everyone is asking themselves, why is this happening? This app is changing the way people use social media in many different ways, and that is why you find that even marketers are currently marketing their products using Snapchat. Here are the reasons why Snapchat is becoming the talk of town more than the others:

Snapchat Creates The Urgency Sense

The main difference between Snapchat and other social media platforms is the fleeting nature of the content. Unlike Tiktok and Instagram, where you have to constantly check on the app daily to stay updated with your friends' content, Snapchat allows teens to view their close friends' snaps and chats within ten seconds and stay up to date. Moreover, the content friends share in their stories can disappear after 24 hours of posting.

This nature of the app allows people to share stories of their current situations that they would not want to stay in their lives forever. Simple things like the people you hang out with while having dinner, what you ate, and whatever happened over the day. For this reason, you will find Snapchat and teens being one.

Encourages sharing of full stories rather than highlights

Daily users are likely to spend about 25 to 30 minutes on Snapchat daily; you should not be surprised to know that they get a lot of content from that. It is common for peers to share at least ten moments a day from when they woke up until they slept. For instance, if you take a trip, you might want to take your friends along virtually, and every moment you share, they find it in full rather than just a highlight of their trip.

Live without ads

Snapchat is among the few platforms where you can share live news without ads appearing or popping up every moment. It gives users choices when to view brands' content, thus enabling the selected brands to promote their products and content through Snapchat's Discover. This tab can quickly draw an audience of about 40 million people within 24 hours, and here you will promote whatever you want without disruption.

Tiktok is the most popular video-sharing app, with millions of users; however, you may have heard about the fire that has engulfed this app. Recently, the United States threatened to ban the app; this means that brands and individuals who rely on it should be prepared for anything, or consider Tiktok Alternatives. Fortunately, TikTok's fame inspired people to create other apps that work exactly like TikTok, in that if the app is banned, you can find other apps where you can share your videos. Here are some Tiktok alternatives and some information about them:

How many governments have banned Tiktok in the US?

As of February 2021, there are no US governments that have banned TikTok. However, there have been efforts by the US government to regulate and limit the use of the app.

Have state governments banned Tiktok from being used on state owned devices?

Yes, some state governments have banned the use of TikTok on state-owned devices. In October 2020, the state of Arkansas banned the use of TikTok on all state-owned devices. Similarly, the state of Utah has prohibited the use of the app on any devices purchased with state funds.

Any colleges and universities banning Tiktok on their school wifi networks?

Yes, some colleges and universities have banned the use of TikTok on their school wifi networks. For example, Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, and the University of South Carolina have all banned the app on their networks.

Clapper

Clapper, like TikTok, is a rapidly growing social media platform that allows users to share their ideas, lives, and content in the form of short videos. There's more to this app; if you read the app store descriptions, you'll see that it doesn't have ads, it's free to use, and there's no BS; it's all about real people. Once you've made your own, you'll be able to see other people's opinions, express your own support or opposition, and allow others to do the same.

The app is intended to allow users to give speeches with less restraint than competitors. It's similar to TikTok in that you can make money here; it has a monetization feature that allows owners to capitalize and charge super fans to view their content.

Fanbase

You've probably heard of Fanbase; it's an app comprised of a public figure's fans; if you're an artist who used TikTok to promote your music, this will serve as an alternative where people can consume your music and even help you track the record, success, and journey of your music. Everyone who follows you on Fanbase will interact with your music and content, giving you feedback and suggestions on how you can improve. You only need to understand your target audience and the social media platforms where the majority of your supporters are active, such as Fanbase.

Likee

Likee is one of the most popular TikTok-like apps; it allows users to share short videos in the same way that TikTok does. It is independent and rapidly growing; you can find it on Android and iOS; it is currently popular in each store; additionally, it has a large and interactive audience that marketers can use to market and advertise their products. Anyone can use the app as long as you create helpful videos that engage your audience. It also includes music and effects that you can use to improve the quality of your videos. It is now one of TikTok's direct competitors.

In today's world of social media platforms, TikTok stands tall at the top of the pile. Formerly known as musical.ly, TikTok is as successful as it is for a number of reasons. For starters, the social media platform in its current form fills a void that its predecessors like Vine had left in the social media space. It is, therefore, not difficult to see why the social media app has taken off in popularity the way that it had.

Importantly, it does not hurt that the current TikTok algorithm within the app and the ability to share videos to other major platforms seem to support the viral reach of videos. Even TikTok users that are numbered among "the least of these" will post a video that will get likes, views, comments, and good support. Some go on to be viral, reaching far beyond the app and become Internet phenomenons. Add to that the fact that the tag of the person whose video is being shared remains throughout the duration of the video, and you get users who are eager to use the platform and grow their profiles in the social media space.

A Closer Look At TikTok Competitor Instagram Reels

In many ways (before Facebook bought the app), Instagram had a much freer algorithm where hashtags yielded a greater reach for the content posted by users and the chances of posting viral content were much higher. However, that has significantly changed. As such, other social media apps like TikTok have been allowed to take up space. The competition has forced Instagram to evolve and implement new features. The most recent feature in this evolution is the addition of Reels which are very TikTokesque in how it functions.

Some popular features that IG Reels and TikTok share include stitching together shorter videos that combine to make one video that is designed to promote a particular idea, point, or just for fun. The use of filters, as well as the addition of music, text, voice alterations, and other features, are among the TikTok adaptations used on IG Reels.

It is true that IG Instagram has done well through Reels to ensure that they don't lose a significant portion of their user-base to TikTok by now offering TikTok's appeal right there in the IG app. However, it is hardly likely that this will hurt TikTok in a similar manner that IG Stories arguably hurt Snapchat. For starters, TikTok by design (algorithm and sharability features) plays to the desire for virality that brands, influencers, and other users are looking for with their digital brands.

YouTube 's new short-form video service, YouTube Shorts, will soon be available in over 100 countries after being trialed in selected markets. It has been developed as a competitor for the popular TikTok platform and was first released in India for beta testing earlier this year where its uptake tripled over several months. YouTube is essentially playing catch-up with its popular TikTok competitor but also aims to integrate its Shorts offering with the wider YouTube platform as a key method for attracting new users and expanding its reach.

YouTube Shorts

The YouTube Shorts service provides functions for producing short video content that are very similar to its TikTok competitor. It allows users to record, edit and share video content that can be up to 60 seconds in length and also allows popular music to be included. Users have access to a range of tools that allow them to start and stop recording with a single tap with the service offering a small number of editing features. These include controls that allow the audio to be sped up or slowed down, a countdown timer, the ability to insert text overlays at chosen points and the ability to adjust colors.

TikTok Comparison

While YouTube shorts offers a convenient tool for choosing music to be used in the video it does not have the automatic sound synchronization feature of TikTok which made the app more accessible and popular with first-time users. In addition, YouTube's offering lacks the wide catalog of special effects that TikTok offers - such as augmented reality functions and the ability to use a green-screen. YouTube Shorts, like Instagram Reels and other competitors, are seeking to make the features of TikTok available to users that want to create and publish short video content on their social media platforms.

The US Commerce Department has announced that it is rescinding a decision made to place Chinese owned TikTok and WeChat on a list of applications that were prohibited from transactions by US citizens. The ban was issued in September of last year by the Trump administration in a bid to stop any additional downloads of the apps.

Presidential Executive Orders

President Joe Biden recently withdrew a number of executive orders by the previous president that sought to block any new downloads of the apps which are owned by the Chinese company Tencent and ordered the Commerce Department to conduct a review of any security concerns posed by these and other Chinese-made apps. The previous administration had established the so-called 'TikTok ban' in response to concerns about data being gathered on US citizens by China and also sought to ban transactions with other apps, including WeChat, which would have effectively banned their use in the US. WeChat has reportedly been downloaded by more than 19 million users in the US and has become a widely used platform for payments, services and games. Biden's new executive order revokes the bans against WeChat and TikTok as well as against another eight communication and financial software applications.

While Biden's executive order rescinded the bans, it nonetheless directed the Commerce Department to continue monitoring applications like TikTok to determine whether they could impact US national security. It also ordered the department to present recommendations within 120 days that would help to protect US data acquired or made available to companies controlled by other foreign adversaries.

National Security Concerns

TikTok remains one of the world's most popular social media apps and China's foreign ministry welcomed the move as a positive move urging the US to respect the free market and not to use so-called national security concerns to suppress China's tech industry. The effort by the Trump administration to effectively ban various Chinese apps had led to numerous legal challenges which had the effect of heightening tensions between the two countries. Last year a US district court judge granted a temporary injunction to TikTok that blocked the effort to ban downloading the app. At the time Trump had approved a bid by US tech company Oracle (backed by Walmart) to purchase TikTok but the move failed to gain approval from China's regulators. The app is believed to have more than 1 billion users world wide and is particularly popular with younger users.

Developed and launched in 2016 by ByteDance, TikTok is a social media application that allows users to share short videos. In early 2020, TikTok gained massive popularity across the globe, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic that triggered the social isolation and lockdown policies. While this application was solely meant for entertainment at first, e-commerce sellers are now taking advantage of it to market their products. With that in mind, here's a look at some of the new TikTok's new features.

TikTok Product Links

This feature allows the seller to add a product link, which enables the users to click and view the products in the online shop. This way, TikTok sellers get to market their products on this platform without necessarily displaying them.

Short Video Displays

Apart from adding a link to your products, TikTok also allows you to display your products in form of short videos. Here, you can demonstrate the actual working of the product and get people interested in purchasing it.

Livestreamed Shopping

This feature allows brands and influencers to host shopping livestreams, enabling viewers to view products and make in-app purchases in real-time. The TV shopping channel feature is suitable for brands and influencers that command a massive fan following.

TikTok's Competitors

Currently, TikTok is competing with numerous other ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, Wix, Square online, BigCommerce, and Squarespace. Despite their different business models, these platforms target virtually the same audience, meaning the competition in this space is cutthroat.

TikTok Partnership With Shopify

In October 2020, TikTok announced a partnership with Shopify that would allow at least 1 million merchants to market and sell their products through video ads. So far, the TikTok for Business feature enables ecommerce entrepreneurs to create and run campaigns on TikTok and engage their online communities. Beyond advertising their offerings on TikTok, merchants can also sell their offerings on the platform, and therefore, earn money on the platform.

TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms out today. From trending dances to sketch comedies, social media influencers are really finding creative ways to make great content, brand themselves, and earn livable salaries. Still, the social media platform has not been without its challenges and controversy.

What Is TikTok and Why Is TikTok US In the Throes of Political Discourse

TikTok, in many ways, is like the popular Vine app we had a few years ago. Like Vine, TikTok is a video social media app where 'real short videos' take center-stage. The short-form video app has been the source of viral dances that have taken pop songs up the Billboard charts, as well as spearheaded viral political activism and satirical content. It is the virality of its content that has added to the app's popularity and rapid rise within the pop culture digital dynamic.

All things considered (including the shareability of its content to just about every other popular social media platform), all is good and well in the world of TikTok. Well, except for its owner, that is. The TikTok app is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. The concern is that user data can be handed over to the Chinese government if so required. The owners of TikTok has pointed to the fact that they are against such practices and would not hand over user data at the request of the Chinese or any other government. Still, the United States (US) government considers the app to be a national security threat and commands that the app owner meet the outlined requirements of risk being banned in the US.

The Ultimatum: The Only Solution the Trump Administration Will Accept

Even with the best efforts of the owners of TikTok to reassure the US government and other critics that the app does not use spy technologies nor is it a threat to national security, the Trump administration has laid down the gauntlet. The ultimatum is simply this, be banned in the US or be owned by a US company with user data being held and controlled on US soil - far from access by foreign governments and espionage. With the option to be US-owned, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.